Hey, it's a new story! Uncle Miles fights monsters, no matter what he looks like.
Un-beta'ed, so quibble away.
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There Is No Danger
One
Uncle Miles passes to Danny shortly after his sixth birthday. Charlie presses the teddy into her baby brother's hands, telling him with all the certainty she can muster, that Uncle Miles will make the asthma hurt less.
Danny clutches the bear to his chest, sobbing into the soft fur as he tries to breathe. Charlie tells him stories about how Uncle Miles fought off monsters under her bed when they had the big house Before, and how he kept the monsters away from her.
"Unca Mi looked after me," Charlie says sincerely as Danny's starts breathing a little easier. "But I'm too old for him to look after."
Danny smiles as he falls asleep, cuddling the toy with his face pressed into the soft fur.
Two
Danny keeps Uncle Miles close to him, whispering every secret he has in the teddy bear's ears. He keeps his guardian close, even going so far as to keep the bear tucked into his shirt so Rachel, his mother, can't take it from him. Rachel despises Uncle Miles for some reason. Danny is inconsolable every time anyone but Charlie takes Uncle Miles from him, and it soon stops.
Maggie is much more understanding. Danny warms up to her, even though there are still weak, pathetic sniffles every time he doesn't have Uncle Miles in his hands. The eight-year-old clings to his teddy bear after Maggie gives him his medicine, sniffling like he's about to cry.
Uncle Miles keeps watch, and lets Danny use him as a security blanket when he needs to hide his eyes. Teddy bears are good for that, after all.
Three
When Danny starts school in the new village with Charlie, he's forced to leave Uncle Miles in the bedroom he shares with his older sister. He buries his face in his knees and refuses to respond to anything anyone says to him. Aaron's patience wears thin and almost snaps when Charlie leaves the lessons in a huff. Danny's asthma acts up and his crying gets worse.
Charlie thunders back into the school at full speed, shoving two objects into Danny's hands. The ten-year-old immediately clasps the bear under one arm and drinks the medicine Maggie makes for him, even though most of it gets slopped over his chin because his hands are shaking so badly.
Uncle Miles begins attending lessons with Danny for several more months.
Four
Charlie doesn't sew, or cook (the Matheson family and Maggie have actually banned her from the kitchen after the eggs attempted to eat the pan), or do anything that girls in the village are supposed to do. Danny confides to Uncle Miles that he prefers doing girly things, even though the other boys think he's stupid and a sissy.
Uncle Miles doesn't respond. Danny, who's a manly twelve now, knows the bear can't. But given that his closest confidant of the human set is his older sister—and she's always out hunting to avoid getting the stink-eye from Caleb—he doesn't really mind. He thinks, occasionally, he'll talk to Aaron (his teacher and the only person who doesn't seem to mind that he likes "sissy" hobbies), or his dad, but he doesn't. It's not as good as pouring everything out to Charlie or Uncle Miles.
The bear gets a new uniform, although Danny still can't find gold buttons like the ones on the uniform's coat. He frets about where to get new ones.
Uncle Miles has looked after him for six years. Keeping him nicely turned out is the least he can do in return.
Isn't it?
Five
Danny doesn't talk to Uncle Miles as much as he used to. He's almost fifteen now. He's a man. Kind of…
The teen keeps Uncle Miles on his pillow, though. He can't give up the bear that keeps the monsters under the bed away. He's definitely not giving up the teddy bear that made his asthma stop hurting. Sometimes, when Charlie thinks he's sleeping, Danny sees her picking the bear up and pressing her face into his fur. Danny's not sure what secrets she's sharing, but that's okay. That's what Uncle Miles is for.
He keeps secrets, makes asthma better, and fights the monsters under the bed.
Six
Danny struggles against the militia soldiers dragging him away from his father, screaming. He just wants to run inside the house, to burrow under his blankets and pretend that this is just a nightmare. He wants to hold Uncle Miles and whisper his secrets into the teddy bear's ears, just like he did when he was little. He wants this to be a bad dream, and that Uncle Miles can make it all go away.
That's what Uncle Miles does. He makes the bad guys go away. Danny sits in the wagon bed, tears running down his cheeks. He wants to hide under the blankets piled on his bed, and just make the world go away.
Uncle Miles isn't there to tell his secrets to.
Seven
Charlie looks at Uncle Miles—the real one, the human one she named her teddy after all those years ago—a look of mingled disgust and sadness on her face. "We're…we're family," she repeats. Charlie pulls a well-worn teddy bear out of her pack. It's wearing a familiar uniform in shades of blue. She puts it on the table in front of Miles. Her blue eyes are swimming with tears, and Miles feels a little twinge of guilt as he recognizes the bear.
"It's just… I promised Danny that Unca Mi—Uncle Miles, I mean—would always protect him. I guess I was wrong."
She turns on her heel and runs out of the room. Miles picks the bear up and studies it. It's been well-loved, worn smooth and almost furless by two sets of loving baby hands. He sighs.
Uncle Miles has to protect his cubs again.
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